New laws help make Louisiana women safer

Once again, Louisiana is in the top five states for women who are killed by an intimate partner. With one exception, Louisiana has been in the top 10 of this list since this horrific statistic has been recorded. During that one year, we were ranked 12th.

What can we do to make women safer in this state? Our Legislature made some small steps in the last session, passing a few laws that will help heighten safety in the home. First, now when charged with domestic violence felony, a person must have a hearing in front of a judge within five days of his arrest to see if bond can be set. Keeping an offender out of the home for that long may give the survivor an opportunity to get out of the dangerous situation and find adequate resources to escape that relationship if that is her choice.

Now persons convicted of misdemeanors of domestic violence and persons who have a protective order issued against them cannot possess firearms or ammunition under state law.

Finally, a second offense domestic abuse battery is a felony. These enhanced Louisiana laws all help to keep women safer in their homes.

What about the Ray Rice situation? His crime is clearly a felony in Louisiana, even if it was committed on a stranger, much less the lady he loves. But, the problem is society has to change. Despite all the publicity, the haggling, and the rush to draft a domestic violence policy by the NFL, in our society today intimate partner violence is still socially acceptable.

Many of the comments posted on the Rice video site blamed her for the incident. “She pushed him first,” “she married him,” “she now wants everyone to drop the issue and leave them alone,” “she married the paycheck,” “she dropped the charges,” “she must have liked the abuse, why else does she stay in the relationship?” None of these actions on her part is a crime, so why treat her actions as a crime?

Rice’s actions are obviously a crime, a very painful crime. How many ways can people, reflective of much of our patriarchal society, blame her for his violent criminal act?

The sports media are blaming the NFL for Rice’s violence. The news media are demanding Goodell’s resignation over his mishandling of the incident.

The blame and the accountability for that heinous criminal act, must rest squarely and solely on the shoulders of the perpetrator. Our state legislature began to move in the right direction to do that in this past session. Much more legislative work and societal change needs to be done to make women safer in their own homes.

— Ralph Peters is the executive director of the Family Violence Intervention Program, former Natchitoches chief of police and a former officer with the Lafayette Police Department.